Brain drain is a major problem in Assam: Prof Mihir Kanti Chowdhury
From a Correspondent
Tezpur, May 23: “One of the many shortcomings of Assam which no one seems to care about is the perennial brain drain witnessed over the last many decades that has seemingly increasing its pace now-a-days. Before playing the blame card let us take a moment to consider the state of affairs these days.” This was observed by Vice-Chancellor of Tezpur University Prof. (Dr.) Mihir Kanti Chowdhury while taking part in an interaction programme among the students, intellectuals and the media fraternity here on Monday.
The noted academician of intertiol repute was invited to the historic Ban Theatre by various social organizations for a special felicitation programme. After the felicitation, Prof Chowdhury further observed that for better education, the student community needed a better educatiol environment. “Bandh, strikes hamper education. If we devote more time in these acts, we will loss the valuable properties of our life. Health, education and employment are the three major mantras of the HRD Ministry, Government of India, taking which as base, institutions like Tezpur University and other premier universities across the country have been working for the tion’s development,” he said.
The academician hoped that the new State Government would give priority to these issues. Speaking about the connectivity problem in the region, he also said that due to poor connectivity, despite having better exposure in Tezpur University, students from outside do not want to come here for education. “This is a great challenge for us, but we will have to turn it into an expectation,” he said.
Criticizing the education system and defected curriculum that have been prevalent in Assam over the years, he further said that students must be given quality syllabus. “Otherwise we can never expect any good feedback from them and we will not have any right to blame them for their poor performance in every sphere. Rather it will be like cheating them. As a result of all this, we are now facing a brain drain. Our language and culture, education system, economy and many more are the first to be affected by this. About Rs 180 crore to Rs 200 crore go out from Assam as thousands of brilliant students go out for their higher education. If we can absorb these students in our own land by giving an atmosphere of quality education, then employment generation opportunities will also emerge here,” he said and added that institutions like Manipal University were becoming better than other institutions like JNU, IIT in the field of technical education.
Stressing quality education, he also said that until and unless the students were given quality education, dream of overall development of a tion could never be fulfilled. Moreover, giving example of the education system of advanced countries like USA, Japan and Germany he also said that only 25 per cent education was looked after by the government while 75 per cent was maintained by private sector institutions in these countries. “Therefore, these countries are always advanced in education, thereby being able to able grab a worldwide network,” he said, adding that India too should think on these lines.
Prof Chowdhury said that people of West Bengal had no bitter experience of load shedding even for a period of 10 minutes while States like Assam, despite having large-scale potential, faced problems like frequent power cuts. “Yet I am hopeful that the new government will address these issues for the greater interest of the common people, thereby leading the State towards development. The cooperation between the State and the Centre will be crucial in this case,” he maintained.
The function was conducted by Tezpur Sahitya Sabha secretary Pankaj Baruah and presided over by the president of the literary body, Hemanta Baruah.
